Well it has to be this forum! Some of you may remember my determination to swirl, however in the last couple of weeks I decided I’d be happy with just a seize free soaping experience – my soap seized every single time! Results ranged from rice pudding to cement in the bowl, using various FOs. However with all the wonderful advice I’ve gathered here and a few batches later I’ve made my first really nice soap. And I’m not talking about the look of the soap (although I’m pleased with it too:) I’m talking about an amazing soaping experience – I had all the time in the world, my soap reached beautiful consistency and it stayed there long enough for me to colour,scent and pour all the layers and place my embeds (or bits of the messed up soap I made previously). Now hoping it will benefit others here’s how I did it incorporating all the advice I got here:
(I know that all these have already been posted by more experience soapers but as a newbie and someone who read almost every single post on this forum and still made a few horrible batches I’m hoping this will save at least one good batch of soap
so…
I measured my lye and water ( + 1 tbs of sugar ppo which I read promotes lather) mixed it and left in the garage to cool down. For my recipe MMS suggested 300-450ml of water, this time I only put 350ml although in previous batches I went as high as 550ml.
Measured my oils and beeswax (I guess with sugar and beeswax I’m asking for a seizure:), melted hard oils in a double boiler, beeswax in a microwave and then mixed together.
Measured out FO and added about 400gr of cooled down oils. Previously I tried adding only a few tbsps and it didn’t work. Once i also mixed all my oils w FO before adding lye water but I soaped at 94F and it still seized.
This time I soaped when my oils and lye water were both at around 25 C (think that’s about 77F). Hand stirred for a bit, stick blended, hand stirred… added soy lecithin, stick blended and once it SLOWLY reached thin trace I divided my soap into three parts. Colored first layer with cocoa, blended some more, added 1/3 of my oil/FO mix, blended more, poured, placed embeds. Similar with other two layers which remained a beautiful consistency throughout.
Because I’m an impatient fool I unmolded and cut after about four hours, hence the mucky marks on the bars. Apart from that I loved it!!!! And I sincerely hope this helps others as well.
oh and this is the photo of the soap (hope you can see it the photo seems tiny)
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